Heretofore, a terminal apparatus has been developed that plays back different content according to attribute information (for example, Unexamined Japanese Patent Publication No. 2001-111921). With this terminal apparatus, the contents of broadcast commercials are managed as attribute information, and commercials relevant to the interests of a viewer are stored. Then, when a TV program is viewed, commercials that have attributes relevant to the interests of the viewer are substituted for commercial broadcasting portions and played back.
However, with the above-described kind of terminal apparatus, when a broadcast TV program is received and played back, stored information such as a commercial relevant to the interests of a user is substituted and played back. Therefore, when music, video, or other content stored in a storage medium such as a compact disc (hereinafter referred to as “CD”), hard disk, DVD, or memory is being played back, only that content can be played back, and information other than that content cannot be played back. There is thus a problem in that, when viewing content stored in a storage medium, a user cannot view information other than that content.
Also, when the above-described kind of terminal apparatus is used as a mobile terminal, there is a problem in that it may not be possible to receive information such as commercials, or there may be periods during which a program cannot be played back, due to the TV program reception area or the radio wave conditions thereof.